Calling All Change Agents
In the mid 1980’s when the Whakatu meatworks closed we ran a programme at Waiohiki to support workers made redundant by the extraordinary restructuring of our economy. Men and women who previously had been…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Third Straight Win for Scott Dixon at Road America
Winning an IndyCar race is nothing new for New Zealander Scott Dixon, particularly this year. But getting to celebrate as fans cheered him on for the first time all year made his victory at…
UFC Champ Israel Adesanya on Cover of Video Game
The newest Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) video game has been announced – and on the cover, is New Zealander Israel Adesanya (pictured right). ESPN’s Marc Raimondi reports. Middleweight champion Adesanya and American welterweight star Jorge…
New Zealanders Pen Music for Dalai Lama’s Album
New Zealand couple, musicians and producers Junelle and Abraham Kunin, have recorded the music of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s debut album, Inner World, an album with 42 minutes of mantras and chants set…
Eric Watson Breaks Own Wheat Yield World Record
Ashburton farmer Eric Watson has taken the Guinness World Record for the highest wheat yield for the second consecutive time, with a staggering 17.398t/ha crop, Andrew Swallow reports for UK magazine, Farmers Weekly. Watson (pictured…
Actor Michael Dorman Star of Creepy New Thriller
Veteran actor Auckland-born Michael Dorman, 39, stars as Jack Shaughnessy, an ambitious TV sports reporter in the new six-episode Australian thriller The Secrets She Keeps screening on US channel, Sundance Now. The New York Post…
Judith Collins Named National Party’s New Leader
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, widely known for her exhortations to kindness and compassion, will face Judith Collins – a combative, tough-talking conservative lawmaker who styled herself after Margaret Thatcher – in the country’s general…
The Beths Brand With Self-Doubt
When The Guardian’s Brodie Lancaster’s video call connects with Auckland songwriter Elizabeth Stokes, he writes that he realises she’s opted for an audio-only chat and switches his camera off too. It’s the kind of…
How NZ Became an Apocalypse Escape Destination
In Queenstown – a picturesque ski spot that often attracts comparisons to Aspen, Colorado – rumours about foreigners investing in apocalypse-proof bunkers have been swirling for years, CNN correspondent Julia Hollingsworth writes. They’re referenced by…
New Zealand Live Lobster Exports to China Surge
New Zealand exports of live lobster are surging as Chinese gourmets return to restaurants, Bloomberg reports. More than 300 tons of the crustaceans were airfreighted to China in May, up 53 per cent on…
Kiwa is Isaac Burrough’s Sustainable Superyacht
Daily web magazine Designboom features New Zealand-born Amsterdam-based designer, Isaac Burrough’s “forward-thinking superyacht concept … developed to maximise both current and future sustainable technologies.” “Named after the Māori guardian of the ocean, Kiwa measures 110m…
Hugh McCutcheon’s Minnesota Gophers the #1 USA Women’s College Volleyball Pick for 2020
Christchurch-born Olympic Gold Medal volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon, in his eighth year as coach of the University of Minnesota’s women’s volleyball team The Gophers, is preparing for the 2020 season with his incoming team…
World’s Newest Dark Sky Park Announced in NZ
New Zealand is quickly becoming one of the top dark sky destinations on earth, Valerie Stimac reports for Forbes, with the country home to two International Dark Sky Association (IDA) certified Dark Sky Sanctuaries –…
Emma G Battling Bigotry With Music in D.C.
Few could have foreseen the landmark events that would embroil the US in upheaval but for former Hamiltonian Emma Ghaemmaghamy, better known as Emma G, the situation has proved surprisingly fertile territory for her…
A Country Can Best Heal When it Acknowledges Past Injustices says Sociologist
What would happen if you lost your land and ended up as a second-class citizen in your own country? asks American medical sociologist Robert Bartholomew in an opinion piece for Psychology Today. “New Zealand is a land…
Helen Clark to co-Lead WHO COVID-19 Panel on Global Response, Future Prevention
“Avowed multilateralists” New Zealander Helen Clark and Liberian politician Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will lead a World Health Organization (WHO) panel scrutinising the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic just as international institutions are under…
Supalonely Singer Benee Speaks with Teen Vogue
Twenty-year-old Aucklander Benee recently performed her TikTok mega hit “Supalonely” on two popular US television programmes, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and the Ellen Show. In June, she spoke to Teen Vogue about…
Amazing Race Host Phil Keoghan on Future of Travel
Los Angeles-based Phil Keoghan, host of The Amazing Race, has been working on a new competition show for CBS called Tough As Nails featuring essential workers, which finished filming before the coronavirus outbreak and premieres…
All Black Beauden Barrett Signs with Suntory
All Blacks flyhalf Beauden Barrett, 29, will play for the Suntory Sungoliath in Japan’s Top League next season, which starts in January 2021, Japanese newspaper The Yomiuri Shimbun reports. Barrett, a two-time recipient of the…
Blackpink’s Rosé New Global Face of Saint Laurent
K-pop bands and their devoted fans breaking various internet milestones (or messing with Presidential campaign rallies) is nothing new at this point, so perhaps the bigger indication that Blackpink is taking centre stage is…
Hamish Bennett’s Bellbird Antidote to Winter Gloom
“Warming the cockles of audience hearts at last year’s Sydney Film Festival, New Zealander Hamish Bennett’s comedy Bellbird is a defiantly optimistic tribute to the Northland region where the primary school teacher-cum-filmmaker grew up,”…
Oldest Surviving Photograph of Māori Discovered
The oldest surviving photograph of a Māori person, a picture of Hemi Pomara, has been discovered in the National Library of Australia, an historical “scoop” being lauded on both sides of the Tasman. Eleanor…
Maps Reveal New Details About Zealandia
New Zealand’s research institute GNS Science has published two maps revealing new research about the underwater continent Zealandia, where dinosaurs once roamed – and is allowing the public to virtually explore it on an…
Countdown First in the World, Period
Shoppers at New Zealand supermarket chain, Countdown will no longer see euphemistic language like “sanitary” or “feminine hygiene” products to describe pads, tampons and menstrual cups after the chain said it would be the…
Travel Lockdown a Blessing for US Surfers
Back in March, photographer Ridge BenBen and surfer Joe Kisling, both from the US, travelled to the South Island for the Single Fin Mingle logging contest, an annual event that describes itself as a…
Fix & Fogg Spreads to Houston
High-end peanut butter company Fix & Fogg has achieved enough success in its native New Zealand that it has established its first American retail presence in Houston, Eric Sandler reports for US lifestyle web…
US Investors Eye Mellonsfolly Ranch
Set in the heart of the North Island in the Ruatiti Valley, Mellonsfolly Ranch is a detailed replica of an 1860s Wyoming frontier town, with a successful manuka honey business on the side. Owner…
Narrative Founder James Broadbent on NZ’s Covid-19 Response in Fast Company
In a Fast Company story, internationally renowned photographer and the CEO of Auckland-based Narrative, James Broadbent describes how New Zealand efficiently executed its pandemic response. He argues this same efficiency makes the country an…
Scott Cunningham’s Furniture Graces Tudor Mansion
New Zealand-born furniture maker Scott Cunningham was an early contributor to assisting in the restoration of Holcombe, the “finest Tudor house in Devon”, under the ownership of Nigel Wiggins who had commissioned Cunningham in…
Everything You Need to Know about The Luminaries
“Set during the New Zealand gold rush in the 1860s, is a heady concoction of love, murder and revenge. It follows the story of Anna Weatherell (played by…
Karekare Bach Unites Architecture and Nature
“A bach is New Zealand’s answer to the humble beach cabin, and the Karekare Bach represents the epitome of its building genre,” Ellie Stathaki writes for influential British design magazine, Wallpaper. “The simple wooden…
A Country Can Best Heal When it Acknowledges Past Injustices says Sociologist
What would happen if you lost your land and ended up as a second-class citizen in your own country? asks American medical sociologist Robert Bartholomew in an opinion for Psychology Today. “New Zealand is a land…
One-Off Jonah Lomu Broke Barriers and Tackles
It is exactly 25 years since Jonah Lomu flattened Mike Catt to score at the Rugby World Cup, where the All Black transformed into a superstar, Paul Rees writes for The Guardian. “When Lomu arrived…
Todd Muller Plots Downfall of Jacinda Ardern
Todd Muller’s launch last week in the Te Puna rugby clubrooms was not flashy or digital; in one sense it was politics of the old school. But for those who listened to the long,…
Sam Neill Back on Set with Anna Paquin
The Jurassic Park star Sam Neill has been entertaining the masses during lockdown with his ukulele playing and ‘Cinema Quarantino Productions’. He talks to The Independent’s Alexandra Pollard about his new role on season…
Artist Peter Boggs Explores the Ins and Outs
“Peter Boggs, the New Zealand-born, Blue Mountains-based artist, has been a regular exhibitor in Canberra for the past 22 years. Boggs champions a form of ‘slow art’, where he relies on the viewer to…
IndyCar’s Scott Dixon Wins in Texas
IndyCar packed every bit of its delayed season-opening event into one long, hot day at Fort Worth, Texas without any fans in the stands. New Zealander Scott Dixon was the fastest for most of…
Sam Cane is Ready for New Zealand’s Top Rugby Job
Like former All Blacks captain Richie McCaw, who learned his craft on the pastoral planes of the Mackenzie Country, the freshly appointed Sam Cane’s rural background in Reporoa, Waikato has become a fundamental part…
How Zane Lowe Became Pop’s Unofficial Therapist
Sitting in a studio in Culver City, California opposite New Zealand-born Zane Lowe, the grey-stubbled Beats 1 host and Apple Music honcho, musicians tend to unspool, even shed a tear, Melena Ryzik writes in…
AlphaTauri’s Graham Watson Explains His F1 Job
New Zealander Graham Watson, the team manager of Italy’s AlphaTauri, talks to Autosport about his job in Formula 1. Watson, who is originally from Pukekohe, started off in rallying before taking his first steps in…
Uncharted Chef Analiese Gregory Dives for Ramsay
Episode one of Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted season two on National Geographic sees the multi-Michelin-star chef explore Tasmania with local chef, New Zealand-born Analiese Gregory known for fishing, foraging and diving for ingredients like sea…
Artist Zac Langdon-Pole Looks to the Stars
Gazing at the stars is something that Berlin-based, Auckland-born artist Zac Landon-Pole has been doing for some time now. He had contemplated celestial mapping through his Passport (Argonauta) creations where meteorites were hand-carved to…
Modest Film Pioneer Bill Gavin’s Epic Career
“Once upon a time, a determined sales agent and production executive could set up a career which would resonate beyond their death. Bill Gavin was a New Zealander who left to report on motor…
Lighting Up the TV Screen With a Wild Rush
The six-part television adaptation of New Zealand author Eleanor Catton’s award-winning 2013 novel, The Luminaries is “a romantic introduction to the Southern Hemisphere country’s 19th century gold rush”, according to The National’s correspondent, Farah…
Housesitters Find a Community in COVID-19 NZ
After struggling to find an affordable apartment in Nelson, a Canadian-New Zealand couple signed up to be housesitters, and ended up booking back-to-back sitting gigs for an entire year. But when COVID-19 began, Business…
How a Pandemic Reframed Ben Shewry’s Attica
From creating A$310 degustation menus for international foodies to driving around Melbourne delivering takeaway lasagnes during a pandemic. Few in the restaurant game have upended their business as completely – and successfully – as…
Allbirds and Adidas Team up on New Carbon-Zero Shoe
Footwear competitors Adidas and Allbirds, co-founded by former All White, Tim Brown, are setting aside strategic and intellectual property concerns and embarking upon an unusual collaboration to quickly and jointly develop a high-performance athletic…
Hugh Stewart’s FaceTime Portraits Shots of Lockdown
Working from a pop-up studio in the garage of his Sydney home, New Zealand-born photographer Hugh Stewart has captured the experience and emotion of life in lockdown using just FaceTime and a strategically placed…
Whispir’s Jeromy Wells Likes a Challenge
New Zealander Jeromy Wells, the chief executive and founder of listed cloud communication platform and workflow software company Whispir, denies COVID-19 is the best thing that has ever happened to him, Patrick Durkin reports…
New Zealand “the New Leader of the Free World”
“When I say ‘new leader of the free world’, I don’t just mean Jacinda Ardern. I mean New Zealand. As a society,” London-based consultant, leading thinker and author Umair Haque writes in a feature…
McLaren Remembers Life of Brilliant Founder
“Fifty years after , the company he started remembers its brilliant, fearless leader,” Tony Davis writes for The…
Artist Max Gimblett goes Oxherding with Lewis Hyde
Auckland born New Yorker and pre-eminent New Zealand artist Max Gimblett has produced his most significant book collaboration with American poet, cultural essayist and MacArthur Fellow Lewis Hyde. Published in September 2020 by the…
Meet Theia Our New Alt-Pop Artist on the Rise
After Lorde and Kimbra conquered the world music scene, there is another New Zealander who’s making waves, according to Manila Times correspondent, Mark Bonifacio. Introducing Christchurch-born, Theia (real name Em-Haley Walker). Theia first emerged…
Sam Neill Locked in the Kitchen
New Zealand actor Sam Neill talks to the UK’s Observer about shunning fame, putting his latest movie on hold, online cooking … and playing Radiohead’s Creep on the ukulele. Neill, star of Jurassic Park, The…
Nelson’s Kakariki Olives Wins Gold Medal in NY
Nelson’s Kakariki Olives, produced by Ray and Brenda Gregory, was one of several New Zealand brands that received gold at the New York International Olive Oil Competition on 8 May, Tim Newman reports for…
From TV to Hot Sauce Charlie Page Looks Ahead
Radical job switches are daunting, but they have the power to rewire entire careers and lives, according to Ed Peters in as story for the South China Morning Post. Peters interviews Ho Chi Minh-based…
